Every year, we host a writing contest in which we start a story and you finish it. After a heated discussion over who was the more important writer for 2009—Walt Whitman or Dan Brown—we wearily relented to Brown’s best-selling genius. Plus, even we’re not so hard-hearted that we could enjoy making fun of Whitman. Plus-plus: Poetry. Read on and send us your finished story.

Jive Brown

The Lost Digital Da Vinci Fortress Symbol

Bob Lamedum stepped briskly out of the Louvre and glanced around. Located at 34 Rue du Louvre 75001 Paris, France, the building was impressive, even to a markology professor from a leading California State University. The April morning was fresh and inviting but Bob was late for an appointment with his sometime mistress, the celebrated astrophysicist-cum-pole dancer Angéle Démon. From there, he planned to meet his mentor, the prominent Odd Fellow and secret tax-dodger Solomon Mines. His phone rang.

“Darn thing,” Bob thought. “How do I work this?”

The phone was new, a gift from Angéle, and Bob was still unused to its flip-top feature.

“Hello?”

“Bob!” Angéle cried, for Angéle it was.

“Solomon has been brutally kidnapped! You must return to California to find him!”

Twelve hours later, Bob was in Solomon’s Santa Rosa home. Looking around, he fondly saw that his friend’s favorite touchstones were proudly displayed: a laminated parking ticket, a glass artichoke tumbling from a cornucopia, a sculpture of a sideways hand set nicely on the piano.

But wait. Two items of the five were missing.

Could they have anything to do with Solomon’s brutal kidnapping? Bob leaned against a bookcase and felt it give, revealing . . .

What does Bob see next? Dan your best Brown by finishing this riveting, sure-to-be bestselling story based on a movie by Ron Howard to us in 500 words or less. The five best entries will be published Oct. 28 and the winners feted with homemade cake, cheap wine and excellent coffee. Gifts, too. Send your story to javajive[at]bohemian.com.